Sunday, May 25, 2008

'I'm not there,' not all there


Last night I watched the film "I'm Not There" where six people play different aspects of Bob Dylan.
I am a fan of Bob Dylan. I know many of his songs, and still much of the movie made little sense to me.
Regardless, it was entertaining.
Cate Blanchett was AMAZING. And seeing Heath Ledger was uncanny.
I recommend the film, but only to people who either 1) love Bob Dylan's music, or 2) love indie, artsy films.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Hawaii ... and colonization?


HAWAII

OK, so it's been awhile since I last posted. I'm already a bad blogger. Meanwhile I've had several ideas for posts, but thought it best to begin with where I am now: Maui, Hawaii.

This is the view I wake up to every morning ... actually, it's more like the view that wakes me up every morning. I share the pull-out bed in the living room with my little sister; we're both awake by 6:30 a.m. either because of the bright Hawaii sunshine, loud Hawaiin waves, or my morning-people family. Gotta love family.

Yesterday we had stopped at a local surf spot and on the back of one car was this sticker: "Welcome to Hawaii, now go home!"

This seems to be a pretty common sentiment among Hawaiians. And I'm starting to think it's for good reason.

Being in Hawaii has made be think a lot about colonization. I haven't done any research and I don't know the history, but this is what I've gathered from observation and conversation: The Polynesians found and settled the Hawaiian Islands and then the Americans took over and overthrough all the Hawaiian kings.

I'm ashamed.

Call me naive, but I thought the only countries who did that crap were countries like the U.K.

Why do we take stuff that doesn't belong to us?

I guess this isn't just a problem between roommates sharing a refrigerator ... countries do it to each other too. I guess sometimes there are lots of benefits, but there's always a cost.